BERKELEY — For many Americans, the potential to track one’s DNA to a specific country, region or tribe with a take-home kit is highly alluring. But while the popularity of genetic ancestry testing is rising – particularly among African Americans – the technology is flawed and could spawn unwelcome societal consequences, according to researchers from several institutions nationwide, including the University of California, Berkeley. ‘Because race has such profound social, political and economic consequences, we should be wary of allowing the concept to be redefined in a way that obscures its historical roots and disconnects from its cultural and socioeconomic context,’ says the article to be published today (Thursday, Oct. 18) in the journal Science. The article recommends that the American Society of Human Genetics and other genetic and anthropological associations develop policy statements that make clear the limitations and potential dangers of genetic ancestry testing. Among the potentially problematic byproducts of widespread genetic ancestry testing: questionable claims of membership to Native American tribes for financial or other benefits; patients asking doctors to take ancestry tests into consideration when making medical decisions; and skewed census data due to people changing ethnicity on government forms. Moreover, many […]
CHICAGO — Neanderthals were hard-wired for language, according to a study released on Thursday that shows that the human’s closest extinct ancestors carried the only human gene that has so far been linked to language. The intriguing finding raises the possibility that Neanderthals had the genetic prerequisites for acquiring language, according to the authors of the report in the journal Current Biology. The squat, slope-browed Neanderthals lived in parts of what are today Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East for around 170 000 years, then died out mysteriously 28 000 years ago. ‘From the point of view of this gene, there is no reason to think that Neanderthals would not have had the ability for language,’ said Johannes Krause, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. Anthropologists have previously argued that Neanderthals had some of the anatomical features necessary for speech such as a full complement of nerves leading to the tongue muscles, indicating that they were capable of forming speech sounds. But other researchers remain unconvinced, and Krause cautioned that more genes related to human linguistic abilities will likely emerge and require cross-checking with Neanderthal DNA. […]
WASHINGTON — The head of the Federal Communications Commission has circulated an ambitious plan to relax the decades-old media ownership rules, including repealing a rule that forbids a company to own both a newspaper and a television or radio station in the same city. Kevin J. Martin, chairman of the commission, wants to repeal the rule in the next two months – a plan that, if successful, would be a big victory for some executives of media conglomerates. Among them are Samuel Zell, the Chicago investor who is seeking to complete a buyout of the Tribune Company, and Rupert Murdoch, who has lobbied against the rule for years so that he can continue controlling both The New York Post and a Fox television station in New York. The proposal appears to have the support of a majority of the five commission members, agency officials said, although it is not clear that Mr. Martin would proceed with a sweeping deregulatory approach on a vote of 3 to 2 – something his predecessor tried without success. In interviews on Wednesday, the agency’s two Democratic members raised questions about Mr. Martin’s approach. Mr. Martin said he was striving to […]
WASHINGTON — Deepening unhappiness with President George W. Bush and the U.S. Congress soured the mood of Americans and sent Bush’s approval rating to another record low this month, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday. The Reuters/Zogby Index, which measures the mood of the country, also fell from 98.8 to 96 — the second consecutive month it has dropped. The number of Americans who believe the country is on the wrong track jumped four points to 66 percent. Bush’s job approval rating fell to 24 percent from last month’s record low for a Zogby poll of 29 percent. A paltry 11 percent gave Congress a positive grade, tying last month’s record low. ‘There is a real question among Americans now about how relevant this government is to them,’ pollster John Zogby said. ‘They tell us they want action on health care, education, the war and immigration, but they don’t believe they are going to get it.’ The dismal assessment of the Republican president and the Democratic-controlled Congress follows another month of inconclusive political battles over a future path in Iraq and the recent Bush veto of an expansion of the program providing insurance for […]
Regular sex boosts a manÂs fertility, say doctors. In a contradiction of conventional wisdom on the subject, research has shown those who do not have sex often produce sperm of lower quality than those who do so daily. This is thought to be because spermÂs DNA becomes more damaged the longer it remains in the body, cutting the chances of fertilisation and raising the risk of a miscarriage in the first weeks of pregnancy. couple sex Daily clinch: The more sex you have, the better a man’s fertility becomes The findings, presented at the American Society for Reproductive MedicineÂs annual conference, will be of particular significance to couples undergoing fertility treatment. Men are currently advised to stop having sex in the days before they provide a sperm sample for IVF treatment. Until now, abstaining from sex in the three to seven days before treatment was thought to increase the quantity of sperm produced and improve the chances of pregnancy. Australian researchers looking at the sperm quality of more than 40 men whose wives had either failed to get pregnant through IVF or had repeatedly miscarried found that when the men had no sex […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
